‘Take a different path’ on asylum, JRS UK urges Burnham

The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) UK has urged the new prime minister to restore the right to asylum, end immigration detention, and ‘put dignity and protection at the heart of the asylum system’.

“Any of us, if we were forced to flee our homes, would want to find somewhere safe to rebuild our lives,” said David Ryall, JRS UK’s director, in a message to Andy Burnham.

“Yet people seeking safety in our communities today are too often denied the protection they badly need, instead facing hostility, detention, and destitution.

“Recent laws and policies have undermined the very principle of international protection by punishing refugees for how they travel, erecting barriers to the asylum process, and forcing people to live in limbo for years even after being granted asylum.

“This is the result of political choices. It is deeply harmful to women, men and children seeking sanctuary, and to our communities more widely.”

Recent changes to the asylum system while Sir Keir Starmer was in office have made refugees’ status temporary and subject to a review every 30 months, and doubled to ten years the amount of time most must wait to receive unlimited leave to remain in the country.

They have also placed new barriers to claiming the allowance asylum seekers are eligible for each week, which is barely enough for food and toiletries, and suggested that some refugees might have to pay this money back.  

The 2025 Border Security and Asylum Act strengthened the potential for asylum seekers to be criminalised for arriving by irregular means such as small boats, and the “one in, one out” scheme has enabled some asylum seekers arriving in the UK to be detained and deported to France.

JRS UK has previously warned that these policy changes have led to children being wrongly detained, undermined the right to family reunification, and “criminalised” asylum seekers.

Andy Burnham has announced that Shabana Mahmood MP will remain home secretary, and he is expected to back her changes to the asylum process.

Ryall stressed that Burnham “has a chance to take a different path and build a politics that welcomes people seeking sanctuary as neighbours, protecting rather than punishing them”.

JRS UK urged him to restore the right to asylum by repealing “anti-refugee laws that punish people seeking sanctuary” and by creating safe routes so people are not “forced into deadly journeys”.

Among Mahmood’s proposals is a scheme for communities, such as churches, to sponsor refugees, which could provide a new safe, legal route.

The statement also called on Burnham to build a system “that examines all asylum claims fairly on their merits” and end immigration detention.

This practice “violates human dignity, does long-term damage to mental health, and isolates people from their friends, families and communities”, it said.

“Abuse, neglect, and humiliation of detained people is prolific. Our society can be better than this.”

JRS also encouraged Burnham to “put dignity and protection at the heart of the asylum system” by allowing people seeking asylum to work and providing “safe and dignified accommodation in local communities”.

Ryall quoted Pope Leo XIV’s statement in Magnifica Humanitas: “A litmus test for social justice today is the treatment of migrants, refugees and those forced to move due to poverty, violence, climate change and environmental disasters.

“The way a society treats them reveals whether its sense of justice is driven by fear or by the spirit of fraternity.”

“As he begins his premiership, we urge the prime minister to embrace a spirit of fraternity and take a new approach to welcoming our sisters and brothers seeking sanctuary,” Ryall concluded.

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